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A BIG Announcement

6

Apr

A BIG Announcement

By May Boeve, Liz Butler, Bill McKibben and Betsy Taylor

For too long, the fossil fuel industry has had its way on the climate issue--its money has overwhelmed the scientific facts, delaying action on the largest challenge humanity now faces.

Right now, the the Clean Air Act is being threatened, the EPA is under attack, and big polluters are mounting an all-out onslaught that threatens to destroy our lands and scorch our planet. In short, we are losing ground.

In the face of these challenges, one thing is clear: if we want to win, we will have to come together like we never have before.

Over the last three years, 350.org and 1Sky have frequently teamed up for U.S. campaigning. Many of you have been with us every step of the way. Together, we’ve coordinated over 5,000 climate demonstrations in all 50 states. We've helped protect the Clean Air Act and won a campaign to get solar panels back on the White House. We've launched creative projects to get science at the center of the climate debate, trained thousands of new leaders, and built a network of strong local groups.

Despite all of this work, we haven’t been winning enough. The truth is that we don’t yet have the climate and energy policies our country and the world need. To get them, we’ll need to do much, much more to loosen the stranglehold that corporations have over Congress. We’ll need to be as strong as possible to take on the fossil fuel companies--and we can be stronger together. That’s why we’re merging organizations to create a NEW 350.org.

The merged organization will be running an ongoing series of cutting-edge campaigns--online and offline--that can help usher in a new era of climate action:

We will directly confront the barriers to climate progress--from Big Coal to the US Chamber of Commerce, from the cabal of corrupt politicians attacking the Clean Air Act to an administration too timid to defend it.

We will train, empower, and mobilize a grassroots army of individuals, businesses, organizations, and community leaders pushing for climate solutions in the United States.

We will continue our work globally to build a diverse climate movement all around the world that unites for strategic mobilizations on a scale previously unimagined.

In just a few short months, we’ve witnessed people power in action. From the Middle East to the Midwest, movements have risen up to overturn tired dogma and challenge entrenched power.

Many of us were inspired by these events. And many of us were surprised. Perhaps we were growing skeptical that people power could still work. Maybe we had forgotten a vital fact about our world: that bold citizens, united around a common mission, can still come together to create major change against enormous odds.

This movement will never have the money of the fossil fuel industry, so we’ll have to use a different currency: people power. People power means you. It means your friends and neighbors. It means hundreds of thousands of us across the country, uniting to transform our future.

We can do it, and we'll need your help--that's why we'll be in close touch in the coming weeks and months about exactly how anyone and everyone can plug into this vital mission.

If the events of 2011 have taught us anything, it’s that people, properly organized, can do amazing things together.

On behalf of everyone at the new 350.org, let us be the first to say: we can’t wait to do amazing things with all of you.